Various amusement devices, some of which can be used as games, have included various types of plates, boards or the like on which one or more objects may be placed to follow a path on or around the board, or to otherwise be moved by gravity, when the board is tipped in a certain direction. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,562 discloses a coil spring for supporting a plate having a series of circular walls, with openings at opposed positions in alternate walls. Balls, such as marbles, are placed in pockets around the outer rim of the circular plate to tip the plate to a desired position, so that a playing ball, which is placed in the inner space, will move through an opening into the next outer space. U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,986 discloses a racing game involving two toy cars and an elliptical track having a corresponding inner edge, while each car has an arm whose end extends over and around the outer and inner edge of the track, respectively. The track may be supported by pins at opposite ends, or a central pivot pin, permitting tipping to different positions. Each arm is connected to the axle for the front wheels, so as to cause the wheels to turn as the respective arm moves around the curved end of the respective edge of the track. U.S. Pat. No. 1,572,069 discloses a toy for rolling marbles down a plate, which is mounted on a number of springs around its edges and is vibrated by an eccentric turned by a hand crank. Holes at one end of the plate receive ovoid racers which are caused to move from one end of the plate to the other through the vibrations produced by the eccentric. U.S. Pat. No. 1,701,503 discloses a plate having annular tracks, one inside the other, flanked by upstanding ridges, with a toy racing car placed on each track. The racers are moved around by tilting the track through an oscillating motion imparted by a hand operated device under the track. U.S. Pat. No. 1,729,049 discloses a platform provided with a pair of oval slots through which an arm extends from a corresponding racing car. Each car is moved by a pivoted roller mounted on the end of a flexible cord connected with the respective arm with each roller placed in one of a pair of oval troughs disposed beneath the tracks. One trough is pivoted by a crank handle at one side of the platform, and the other trough by a crank handle at the other side. By pivoting the troughs, the players cause the racing cars to move around the respective tracks, due to the pull of the corresponding roller, induced by gravity. Other U.S. patents showing tilting tracks or troughs, including separately pivotal sections, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,655,016; 3,879,039; 4,094,507 and 4,227,693.
As will be evident, each of the marble or marble-type games do not produce the speed which a toy racing car or the like can be made to attain, through proper manipulation of a track having an adequate configuration, while racing cars having an arm extending over an edge of a track or connected to a roller in a trough do not appear to be able to follow a configuration more complicated than an oval.
Among the objects of this invention are to provide a device by which a racing car or the like can be made to attain speeds considerably in excess of prior devices and which may be utilized as an amusement device or as a game; to provide such a device in which acceleration of the car or the like is produced by gravity; to provide such a device which includes a track whose configuration is conducive to consecutive accelerations of a racing car or the like in traveling around the track, when the track is tipped in different directions; to provide such a device which will increase the speed of the car or the like at each tipping; to provide such a device in which a slot forms a track and the car or the like is adequately guided around the track; to provide such a device in which the track may be formed between a pair of planar panels from the configuration of the inner edge of one and the outer edge of the other, with the edges being parallel but spaced apart to form a track slot; to provide such a device in which the car or the like is adequately maintained in position on the track and is adapted to move around the track on rollers, wheels or the like; to provide such a device in which the board or track assembly is resiliently supported from a central position, permitting the track to be tipped in any direction; to provide such a device in which a car or the like is adequately guided around a track having consecutive curvatures in different directions on each side; and to provide such a device which is relatively simple in construction and effective in use.